


Bound

by misslonelyhearts



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, dubcon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-06
Updated: 2011-12-06
Packaged: 2017-10-27 00:29:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/289575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misslonelyhearts/pseuds/misslonelyhearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Again, this is among the first works of fan fiction for me.  I include the Rape/Non Con tag only because the situation is a possible trigger.  Thane is the captive, and the situation that develops is NOT rape, but the warning seemed appropriate nonetheless.</p><p>It takes place twelve years before the events of Mass Effect 2, when Thane is on the hunt for Irikah's killers . . .and a teenaged Adelle Shepard gets in his way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

Blue-black light crept behind his eyelids, both sets, as the assassin awoke. First darkness, then dim shadows, then the slow remembrance of the apartment around him. Surfaces glowed with the purple-ish iridescence of city lights cast through the windows. Then pain. Bolts of it spiking through his brain while subtler, more bearable muscular distress issued from his arms. His head came up, met with an immovable object. His arms pulled tightly back, twisted around the same object. A column. Sturdy. His hands could touch nothing, grasp nothing. Not even the knots that held him. Perfect knots, expertly applied. Grimly, he noted the same precise knots had been used to bind his knees and ankles to a cushy, armless leather dining chair, in which he sat. Immobility threatened the assassin's every instinct. He closed his eyes and fought the encroaching panic.

The admiral's apartment. In the personal darkness behind his closed eyes, Thane retraced his movements, breath returning to normal, pulse steadying. After the restaurant he'd walked the whole way, he would easily beat them here. They were only just eating dessert when he left. It had to be here. Their hideaway. In his own home the admiral's security was top-notch. But here, the assassin breached the vent system in seconds, bypassing all the cameras. All the eyes which might remember him. A drell was rare enough to remember. And he would have been memorable with his . . .a shiver quaked beneath his scales. No clothes. Almost none, anyway. Thane felt more than saw that only his brief shorts stood between himself and the cold, dark world of the woman's apartment. Even his boots were gone.

His memory seemed to end with approaching the apartment's front door. Other memories clamored in the thundering pain of his head. This mission . . .this quest for vengeance was only just beginning. Admiral Shepard was only the first step. His hands rotated, testing the knots. Dealing with ambush was a skill he'd not needed to practice in some time and this setback, so early in the process, exacerbated the ripening agony of Irikah's death.

Again his black eyes cast around the room. And as they did, he froze. In front of him, beyond a glass coffee table, was a couch. On the couch was a girl. The epitome of motionless. His mind balked at having missed her earlier. But, he saw her now. She reached to the table at her right and touched a lamp. Soft, yellow light pierced the blue cave of the room. He winced. The pain in his head flared.

"I learned to tie those in the academy," she said. "I think I just outdid my best score, actually." She unfolded the long legs that had been tucked beneath her and sat forward on the edge of the couch. Elbows resting on knees, fists up under her chin, the girl looked at the assassin. "We've got some time, but not a lot. So I suggest you tell me what you're doing here. Or, I'll just use this."

From the pocket of her short leather jacket the girl pulled a pressurized injection device. One that had previously resided in the assassin's missing waistcoat. Thane eyed the sleek chrome instrument. He reasoned that she probably knew what the drug was for. Flexing his right arm, the assassin tried to tap into his biotics.

"Oh, when I took your omni-tool I went ahead and deactivated your bio-amps." Amber light glowed along the girl's left arm as her own omni-tool popped to life. She glanced at a read-out. "Your encryption is good, though. I couldn't get anything off it." Thane lifted his eyes to hers. All the terrible indignation of youth stared back at him.

The girl's young face, half shadowed, belied her fierce skill. Spiky platinum hair, with several inches of black at the roots, framed the strong jaw and delicate nose. Eyes rimmed in heavy black kohl never wavered from his. She couldn't have been more than seventeen or eighteen. And she had knocked him out, disarmed him, stripped him, and tied him down. Thane's burning hatred and disappointment concealed what might have been admiration for the girl. She was right, though. Time was short.

"How does a girl your age have an omni-tool?" he croaked. The sound of his own voice caused a fresh wave of pain in his head. He hoped he sounded casual.

"Perks of being an Alliance brat, I guess." She rose from the couch and the light of the tool died away. Thane took in her full form. Tallish, muscular. Tight, low-slung pants, tank top, leather jacket. All black.

"You're Shepard's daughter," he said. Her subtle shift, a sudden anger in her body, encouraged him. "You're Adelle."

The sound of her name, rolling like a reverberating taunt from drell's mouth, made Adelle's blood pressure spike. This man, clearly an assassin, had all but ruined her careful plans. The girl had so little fun left in her life. Who was he to take it from her?

"Nice to make your acquaintance, Mr. Assassin."

"You are supposed to be away. Military school." The assassin shook his head.

"Yeah. I ran off. I do that." She came to stand in front of him, hefting the injector. Her closeness forced him to look up. "Want to tell me why you're after dear old dad? Or should we go straight to the drugs?"

"Do you know what you're holding?"

The girl, Adelle, gave him a wan smile. She was edgy, spoiling for a fight after watching her father and the woman together. The drell was a provocative distraction.

"You were armed. You have biotics. If you only wanted to kill him you could do it a million ways." She pressed the nozzle against the assassin's jaw, tilting his head. "No, you want information. And if the admiral wouldn't cooperate, you could always introduce him to what I'm guessing is Thiopental, here."

"It's also written on the ampoule," he offered, dryly, looking into her eyes. They were green, he saw now. Adelle lost her smile and backed away.

"Lots of people have good reasons for wanting my father dead." Her voice, cold and dark, seeped into Thane's nerves. "If anyone understands that, it's me. But, you are going to tell me who you are, and what you were doing at the restaurant. And, why you're here."

She cocked the device and watched the assassin swallow hard. The fun of toying with a deadly weapon threatened to give way to true fear. The admirals' daughter had fantasized about killing her father in so many ways. Essentially, though, she'd never known true, merciless bloodshed. Not the way this creature dealt it.

"Where are they? Your father and the woman?" he asked. Adelle looked away. "You warned them, somehow? You were there, you must have been. But I missed you." This he said mostly to himself, running over the layout of the restaurant, remembering each waiter, each diner. The girl's face did not come forth in his memory.

"Don't be too hard on yourself," the wry grin creeping back onto her lips, "You were focused on your thing. I was focused on mine. Dessert." She sat on the arm of the sofa, device glinting between her slim hands. "You left before all the good parts. The choking, the blood, the ambulance."

Poison. Thane's impromptu captivity boiled down to accidentally impeding a girl bent on her own brand of revenge. Incredulous, the assassin saw Adelle Shepard in a new light. A bare skeleton of this appeared in the files he had studied. More than just a spoiled Alliance kid, she carried rage beyond her years. An unfaithful, inattentive father, depressive mother, sole child abandoned to some military institute. Highly trained, (he assumed, given his predicament) at an early age, with access to technology and weaponry, and seething with animosity, Adelle Shepard was a time bomb.

"You poisoned them?"

"Only her. And, just a little. Just enough to ruin things for the night. So he would be alone for . . .later. As it turns out, I did my dad a favor. Right about now he'll be knee deep in hospital bullshit instead of beaten to a pulp by a drell." Shepard's daughter turned the injector over in her hands, running a finger lightly over the glass ampoule loaded inside. "He'll be too scared to come here now. Too much chance of being caught." An image of the admiral, worried and haggard under waiting-room lights flashed before Adelle's eyes. A twisted pout played at her lips. She heaved a cleansing breath and turned to Thane with gleeful malice.

"So, change of plans, Mr. Assassin!" Adelle came to him and bent low to look him in the eyes. "What say we have a chat?" She waggled the injection device. He considered smashing his forehead against hers. The punishment to his brain would be fitting. That he'd let himself be captured insulted his pride. That he'd failed his wife so thoroughly for a second time pained him in a much deeper place.

"I'll explain." Thane's voice, its gravitas and lack of fear, gave the girl pause. "There's no need for that." He cocked his head toward the injector.

"Yeah? We'll see." She said, and stuck it in her back pocket. Adelle stood between Thane's bare knees and whipped off her jacket. It landed with a soft sigh on the couch. Hands on her hips, the girl looked down into the face of her father's would-be assassin. The drell had a powerful body, top-notch biotic implants, and an expensive, black-market omni-tool. Only luck had kept her one step ahead of him so far. But, he didn't need to know that. His eyes held hers. Within their black depths, the admiral's daughter easily identified grief and anger. "Let's hear it."

Thane drew a deep breath and looked past the girl to the twinkling city lights of Illium.

"Your father was stationed on Kahje for a time. Do you recall?" His voice, deep and thrilling, reminded her instantly of the hanar home world. She could only nod. Kahje had been four years ago at least. "They sent you to the academy around that time." Again, she nodded. Her back stiffened. Thane noted the shift in her attitude and moved on.

"The admiral is a part of a larger story. My mission, what I must do begins with him. I'll give you whatever detail you require, but . . ." No response from the sullen girl. Gloom penetrated his composure. He needed to get her involved, talking. The apartment seemed even quieter than before. "Can you tell me how you managed . . .this?" He looked down at his mostly naked body and pulled helplessly at the ropes binding his arms around the column. Adelle at first shook her head, sending the mop of platinum hair bouncing around her face, but then she crossed her arms and nodded.

"Tell you what. We'll take turns. You tell me about Kahje and I'll tell you how I got the drop on a hanar-trained assassin." Thane's eyes, already large and attentive, widened at this. The girl winked at him. "I know, right? You get dumped on a waterworld at the age of fourteen and it's amazing the things you pick up."

"I see," said the assassin. The girl pulled another dining chair into the living room and placed it directly in front of him. She perched, cross-legged on the chair, elbows propped on knees. "I'll begin again." He said.


	2. 2

"The hanar needed a liaison to the Citadel, to gain a seat on the council. The Alliance stationed your father on Kahje to study and aid them."

The girl closed her eyes against the drell voice. Its strength overwhelmed her.

"The admiral has always had a talent for selling secrets. But, his weaknesses, his predilections made him an easy target for criminals. Eventually, your father would come under the influence of the Shadow Broker." Thane paused, gauging the girl's reaction. "Have you heard of him?" She shook her head.

She remembered her father as he had looked on the hanar home-world. Salt and pepper hair, warm smile, tanned face. Adelle rubbed her temples with both hands. Her mother's face came next. Pale, weary, unhappily framed against the window of their apartment as a thunderstorm passed overhead.

"Suffice it to say that the Shadow Broker knew enough about your father to compel him to obey. Things he wouldn't have wanted you or your mother, or the Alliance for that matter, to discover."

"Obey?" Adelle met the assassin's gaze. He nodded and glanced around the apartment, mind already working on where she might have hidden his clothes and his pistol. Too many obvious places, nothing clever came to mind. He found her watching him again.

"Tell me about tonight. At the restaurant." Thane lifted his chin. She noted how perfectly calm he seemed. Bound to a column, stripped, and defenseless the assassin managed to radiate force.

In her mind's eye, Adelle recreated the restaurant where her father and his mistress had met for dinner only hours before. It was dark, private, and precious. Illium fostered many such places, she told the assassin. Sought-after chefs preparing rare delights for the privileged few, while just outside the real city, the one hidden beneath the pale glow of pink and blue neon, swallowed up countless souls.

Her girlish voice, deepened by bitterness, told Thane about the admiral. How he had looked sitting at the bar waiting for the woman. Relaxed, expectant. Not a man she had ever known in her own home.

"She's not even young. He's known her for years. Been seeing her almost as long as I've been alive." The assassin watched the girl's bottom lip disappear briefly beneath small, white teeth. "I just wanted them to suffer a little. The way she does, my mom, when she knows everybody's in on it but her. You know?"

Adelle stood suddenly, pacing behind her chair. Drugs, she thought, paled in comparison to this . . .this quid pro quo with the assassin. Revealing herself, her unrestrained hostility, it felt like the right send-off. An exciting way to enter the next phase of her life . . .away from everything.

"I've been working on this for a month. I knew I was going to ditch the academy for good. I'm eighteen, I can join the Alliance and get the fuck away from all this." She grasped the high back of the chair, heart in her throat. "But before that I wanted to come here and treat him to a little pain." The thought of her father suffering sent a smattering of goose bumps across the girl's arms. Thane blinked at her, recoiling at her venom.

"I wore a disguise. That's why you don't remember me." Adelle came around her chair and pulled it even closer to the drell. "I bribed the sous-chef and the waiter." She dropped into the seat slowly, resting her palms on Thane's naked thighs. "I guess it's an inherited skill. Corrupting the vulnerable." She let her hands linger there, burning the pebbled green scales right down to the taut muscles beneath. Obsidian eyes, heavy-lidded, drifted from her hands to her face. Green eyes flared with curiosity . . . and fear.

"You saw me . . .when?" he asked.

"Almost right away. You took the spot I wanted. In the darkest corner, overlooking the room." Finally, she removed her hands and cool air soothed the assassin's frayed nerves. But then she draped her long legs across his lap, leaning back in her chair. She reached beneath her and pulled the injection gun from her back pocket and settled down again. "You ate. Didn't seem out of place, exactly. But, you were the only one dining solo. So I kept an eye on you. Drell aren't exactly common here." She twirled the chrome injector on her flat stomach and flexed her feet, rubbing her leather-clad legs high up across the assassin's thighs. Thane sucked a quiet breath and thought of his wife. He owed her soul the satisfaction that only vengeance could bring. Selfishly, he wanted it for himself, too. But, this girl was an obstacle. A dangerous one. She was willing to talk if he could play along. And, she would give him everything he needed eventually. If only his patience held out.

"What then?" he prompted.

"Mmm, I think it's your turn, Mr. Assassin."

His eyes tracked lazily from the legs in his lap to the body in the chair and eventually to the young face. The intensity made her flush and she almost sat up. But instead, Adelle settled fully under Thane's gaze. She ran both hands through her blonde hair, tousling it, and laced her fingers behind her head.

"Do go on." She fluttered her black eyelashes at him and smiled her wicked, pink smile. Illuminated by the small lamp on the side table, the drell's body enticed her. His scales, his scars, the brilliant fritillary marking his face and the deep V decorating his abdomen. Even at fourteen Adelle had found them irresistible. She flushed, the recollection tingling her nerves pleasantly. Thane watched the heat pass over her face. He rested his head on the column, closed his eyes, and let the deep register of his voice flood the quiet apartment.

"The Shadow Broker knew of your father's infidelity. But, more than that, he knew how the admiral profited by selling Alliance secrets to mercenary groups and alien governments."

Thane's rich voice faltered. Misery caught in his throat. He didn't want to do this. The strangers stared at each other across a very small space. Planning for vengeance and not for a contract had been so foreign. All the steps remained the same, but the assassin found that this time around he felt . . .everything instead of feeling nothing at all. Reliving his wife's murder, recounting this tale to a strange girl, had become an unforeseen and essential part of the strategy. The sensation of confessing to her infuriated him. She had no right to this. And it made him want to add her to the body count.

Adelle's green gaze held his, eager and open. Warm legs moved in his lap. That he should suffer this, willingly and yet not, made him feel so suddenly wretched that his words came more harshly.

"Batarian slavers paid the Shadow Broker for access to Kahje. Their target was a highly secure drell residential area, under the protection of Alliance forces. Your father secretly allowed the batarians to land in the restricted space, provided the slavers with access cards, and made sure they were able to move undetected in and out of the city."

Adelle's smirk faded away. She sat up. Thane's eyes challenged her, chest rising and falling rapidly.

"When they were done with their . . .mission . . .the admiral made sure that any criminal investigations were unsuccessful."

Her legs came off his lap and thumped on the floor. "What did they do?" Without meaning to, or knowing why, she reached for his face.

"Don't." He pulled away. "Tell me the rest of your story." Furious tears threatened his onyx eyes. But he did not let her look away. "And, then you can have what's left of mine."

Shaken, Adelle searched the assassin's face. Defiance met her, cloaking a heartache even she could not fathom. Her jaw flexed. The girl seated herself like a lady in the chair and crossed her legs, back ramrod straight.

"I watched you leave. You paid, left a tip that no one would remember, and walked. No one who can afford to eat at that place _walks_ back to the towers. You didn't want to be remembered by a driver or recorded by onboard cameras." Adelle licked her lips. "I stayed to watch her eat the first few bites. I knew I had time"

"The look on her face. She coughed, gulped champagne to clear her throat. It was great. There was a . . . a fog of blood in the champagne glass after she collapsed." The assassin watched Shepard's daughter touch her collarbone as she murmured. Thighs squeezing together at the mention of blood. "But, I didn't have to see the whole thing. I needed to beat you back to the apartment."

Thane's nearly imperceptible head-shake took the girl out of her reverie. She scooted forward on her chair and leaned close to his face. Her breath brushed his lips.

"You think I'm a monster? A sociopath?" Adelle spread her arms wide, a gesture as oddly welcoming as it was challenging. "I am as I was made. Just like you."

"Anyway, I hit the bathroom and ditched my disguise. Then I took a taxi back here. The ambulance arrived just as my shuttle took off." She stood and walked to the front door of the apartment, off to Thane's left. He craned his neck. Lights came on, revealing the apartment's entryway. Opening the front door would lead to a small seating area on one side and a broad kitchen on the other. Two steps down led straight to where he was trussed to one of two columns flanking the sunken living room. Adelle leaned against the wall to the right of the door.

"There's not much more to tell. I got lucky. I guessed." Thane's head dropped forward ruefully. "You're right handed. I had a fifty-fifty shot that you would look right instead of left when you first walked through." She flattened herself against the wall and aimed an invisible weapon where the assassin had stepped through the door.

"You had no reason to suspect someone would be waiting." Adelle drifted back down to the living room, light from the entryway following her into the once-dark apartment. "I used a taser. An illegal one my father gave me for protection. Got you right in the head." She stood next to the assassin and touched a spot just behind his frills. He jerked away.

"And my clothes? My weapon?" His control waned. Thane had all but hissed the words. He'd been caught off-guard and electrocuted by an unstable Alliance girl with a penchant for games involving pain and humiliation. Adelle was right, she'd gotten lucky. Visions of snapping her neck soothed him. It did not escape him, as he closed his eyes to the realization, that they were abhorrently similar in that way.

"Your stuff is safe. Hidden. In the very likely event that you broke free I figured it was a good bargaining chip. It's hard to escape undetected without clothes or shoes." She tapped against his bare feet playfully with the tip of her boot. He looked away, out the window toward the deepening night.

"That's it. I tied you up to the very best of my ability, hid your stuff, and waited." She plunked down in the chair before him, triumphant smile spreading across her face. A smile that made her look, despite the heavy eye makeup, like a girl . . .instead of a meddling little monster. But Thane refused to meet her gaze, refused to play any longer.

"It's your turn," she said quietly, searching his face. A warm hand pressed against his chest.

"My life is not a game." The rumbling voice crackled under her skin, burning her cheeks. Threatening. She shivered. "Release me. Tell me where my things are." Her green eyes narrowed.

"Tell me the rest. What happened with the batarians?" She stood, gripping the pressurized injector.

"You have no right to this. No."

Heart pounding, Adelle growled and kicked her chair, sending it skittering across the living room. The device came up to Thane's neck. He glared at her, his own heart seeking escape against his ribs. She bent to look him full in the face.

"You don't get to kill him. That _is_ _my_ right."

A soft hiss and a wet thump issued from her hand. The serum flashed into the assassin's bloodstream with very little pain.


	3. 3

She stepped back from the assassin and tossed the injector over the back of the sofa.

"From what I gather. These drugs work by stopping higher brain functions. Complex things like lying become almost impossible." Adelle crossed her arms and cocked her head. "I wonder how long it takes a drell to get chatty?"

Thane closed his eyes, unbelieving. Warmth spread to his limbs, climbing up his neck and curling around his tongue. His head dropped back against the column, muscles relaxing. As his arms warmed and loosened, he felt the knots at his wrist slip ever so slightly. But, this new information drowned in the pleasure of the drug and was forgotten.

Small, tender hands cupped his face. Black eyes opened to find green ones, lively and frantic.

"What's your name, sailor?"

"My name?" His ridged eyebrows came together as he took in her round cheeks, full lips. As suddenly as the warmth had spread, it swirled away, brown and rough, and he was left feeling resentful. He answered anyway. "Thane Krios."

Adelle knelt on the floor, still holding his face.

"And what happened on Kahje, Thane Krios? With the batarians." For a moment she was afraid he would resist. Part of her willed him to have that strength. Instead, misery, pure and unfiltered, poured from his eyes. Tears threatened, but did not flow. His voice told her, though it was clear he fought it.

"A-Adelle, this is unfair. You don't know what it means . . ." He shook his head, trying to clear it. But her face stayed with him, urging surrender to the thick brown fog licking at his nerves. He continued. His words slow and clear.

"They killed my wife. Their sole purpose was to hurt me in the only fashion available to them." Confused, Thane blinked at the girl kneeling before him, fingertips tracing his cheeks. "It was retribution for a contract I completed. But, they were afraid, too cowardly to come after me. They found her, tortured her, and left her body for my . . . my son to discover."

The horrified girl processed his words. She stood, backing away. Platinum hair fell over her face as she looked down at the drell.

"You were right. I am an assassin, a weapon. Trained by the hanar."

"Stop." Came Adelle's voice, a choked whisper. Trembling hands went to her face.

"When I tried to have a family, live a norm-"

"STOP!"

The apartment rang with the echo of her voice. Then silence. She peered at him through her hands. Hot tears, like needles, ringed her eyes. For perhaps the first time since being sent away to military school, Adelle Shepard felt something for someone other than herself. It terrified her.

Choking back the sob that threatened to bubble from her throat, she approached Thane. Stood close enough to force his head back. The anguished drell nodded at her.

"Your father was instrumental. I must . . .question him." Thane's look, his voice beseeching, sickened Adelle. She was no stranger to her father's corruption. But she had managed, by some miracle, to remain untouched by it. Until now. Locked inside the assassin's grief, she felt compelled to help. But, the oldest part of her, the part that glowed red with contempt and had filled her with strength all these years, refused to give over so easily.

"I can't let you kill him. He'll die, I promise. But not by you." She said, hugging her arms.

"Why?" he bellowed. The brown, swirling haze clawed at his mind. Their eyes locked and Thane's jaw twitched. "I tried to warn you. Tried to make it easy. You want him dead. Allow me." The green and black head dropped, the ragged voice defeated, "It's what I was made for." Adelle moaned in the back of her throat and moved between that assassin's knees. Again she took his face in her hands and he let her.

'Thane. I'm so sorry."

Wet, black tears streaked her face. The fog seeping into his senses ebbed as he looked at her. Youth, anger, turmoil. Had Shepard's daughter ever been just a girl? When Irikah cried, he never knew what to do for her. Even when the tears were happy.

"Her name was Irikah," he said, leaning into Adelle's hand. The girl's sorrow, her warm hands comforted him, and he pierced her with a look. "Release me. You have what you wanted. Let me continue. Let me kill." The assassin's voice wounded her. He was the end of innocence. What remained of hers washed away in his steady, killer's gaze, and the heat that bloomed between them from their sadness.

The girl knelt, silent, and loosened the knots at his ankles, letting the rope slide away to the floor. Breathless, he watched her remove the ties at his knees. Hands roamed his calves, his ankles, massaged his thighs. The girl stood close, trusting, his eyes did not leave hers. As he stretched his legs, pointing and flexing his partially webbed feet, an involuntary groan of pleasure issued from Thane's throat and Adelle looked away.

"My arms-"

"No," she said. "Not yet. Soon."

The admiral's daughter stepped forward and Thane placed a foot against her stomach, gentle but menacing. She leaned against it, her hands on his ankle, rubbing the marks left by her knots. Still holding his foot, she toed off her boots and socks, one by one, her secretive expression worrying him. Moving quicker than any human had a right to, Adelle swerved around his upraised foot, pushing his leg down, and vaulted herself onto his lap. She settled around him quietly, eyes large and hopeful. Thighs pinned his hips, strong hands gripped his shoulders. Thane froze. She moved against him, caressing the length of his aching arms.

"I'll tell you anything you want to know."

"Where are my things?"

"About my father."

"Ah," the assassin looked down at her body. The breasts beneath her clingy top, the impossible waist, the contrast of shiny black leather against his bright green scales. Two hands came together at his chest. Thane nodded, gazing at her lips and then the earnestness of her eyes. Succumbing to this, however he approached it . . .it was base and beautiful in a tarnished way. A feeling he suspected she was accustomed to. And one he feared.

"The admiral has created a lucrative business for himself over the years." She began, sighing. "But, the thing about my father is-" Thane lifted his knees, resting his feet high on the chair's stretcher, bringing Adelle closer, sliding her pelvis more deeply into his lap. He didn't smile, exactly, but watched brilliant flags of color rise in her cheeks burning out the tearstains.

"He, he knows just enough." She said, tugging strands of white-blonde hair behind her ear. "He can't tell you who the batarians are. But he'll know their ship." Fingertips worked upward from his collarbone, threading the crimson tissue on either side of his jaw. Lighter than air, her nails trailed further into is frills, slowly drawing up his neck. Thane closed his eyes, felt her breath on his brow, supple hips pressing closer still. "He'll know where their money comes from. But, not where they're headed." Warm, so warm. Arms circled his shoulders, her ribcage, her breasts brushing his chest. It would be a simple thing to slip away in his mind now, to reach into the brown mist of the drug and take his wife's hand, feel her arms around him. Thane opened his eyes.

"Will he know how to find the Shadow Broker?" The glorious timbre of his voice trembled along her spine. Adelle shuddered and shook her head, writhing. Beneath her, a hardness stirred as the animal sound, deep in Thane's chest, grumbled to life. His lips found the delicate curve of her clavicle. She was so quiet. Only the murmur of leather and the soft rush of her hair as her head dropped back. He kissed her throat, tongue seeking her pulse, lips sucking. One hand held him close, at the back of is neck, the other wandered beneath her shirt. "He'll know the Broker's agent," a husky whisper as she pinched and teased herself. "Where they live. How to h-hurt them." Looking along her jaw, and up at the wash of pale light across her face, Thane observed the girl's eyes. Hooded, disturbed, lost to some sad ecstasy. The muscles of his arms tingled, the fog whisking away from his brain a little at a time. His heart double-timed as her thighs spread wider, clenching around him. Looking down, he saw blue-green scales wrapped around him in place of black leather. He hissed, pushing at the too-real memory, though it kept him needy, wanting. Thane rested his forehead on the girl's chest, inhaling through the fabric. As hard as he was . . .she was harder, indiscernible. Adelle pulled his head back painfully, kissed his forehead, his brows, his nose. She pushed a hand between their bodies, teased a flutter from his abdomen and plunged it into the front of her own pants. Still gripping his head she looked down into his face, full of concern and desire, and began to move. Riding her hand exquisitely, meeting his subtle thrust . . .a reaction he couldn't quell.

"Ask me. Whatever you want." She gasped, fighting to go slow. Enthralled, he could only take in the mess of blonde hair falling in her face, the wet, pink lips parting. Thane pulled so hard at his bonds he thought his arms would dislocate.

"Where will he go, after the hospital?" he kissed the base of her throat.

"Not here. His Alliance office downtown. There's a small b-bed." She shuddered, breath catching. Thane licked her jaw, kissed her cheek as she rose and fell. The motion of her fingers, trapped behind leather, traveling straight to his cock. He drew a jagged breath, concentrating.

"Security?"

"Two guards. One at the entrance." Thane drew his knees up higher and she pitched forward bracing an arm against the column, eyes squeezing shut. "One in the hall outside his of-office."

"Open your eyes." She shook her head, platinum mess flying. So close. She was so close. The assassin's hips pushed upward, the girl's firm buttocks grinding down, lust destroying the walls he constructed to protect his memories. Irikah's face, eyes closed in rapture, her hands guiding him. Thane groaned. "Adelle, please. Irikah."

Frantic green eyes snapped open. Her fingers paused in their labor. In his face she saw the assassin's confusion and remembered the most important thing she'd ever learned about the drell. Shepard's daughter cursed her slow, selfish brain. The poignancy of Thane's memories, his abilities, and the desire he threatened to unleash singed every nerve in her body. Hot waves built in the small nub at her core.

"Go ahead. Let her out." Adelle breathed against his earbuds, kissing the red folds. Thane tilted his head back, examining the girl's face. She rode the motion of her hand again, swirling her hips, but her eyes were clear, beckoning. "Do it." He closed his eyes, shaking his head. A sound, throaty and pure female, issued from Adelle's lips and she reached beneath her to touch him tenderly. Black eyes came open. Thane latched onto her neck, nibbling, licking, sucking the heat from her skin. "Remember. And I'll . . .r-release you."

"No," he commanded against the curve of her neck. But, his wife's hands were already reaching for him beyond the dissolving cloud of the drug. "She deserves better." Adelle stopped her merciless writhing, removing her hands and placing them on Thane's chest. She pushed him back, instantly missing the touch of his lips.

"Remember her. Let it come. I'll give you everything you need. You can hunt my father, kill him if you want. I won't stop you." She bent to his lips and spoke against them. "Touch me, remember her, and I'll let you go."

"You are . . .cruel. Beyond imagination." Tears formed in the black pools of his eyes, but Thane's body burned to complete the degradation he'd encouraged in the girl. She nodded. Not sad, not baleful. But real.

"Yeah," came her quiet reply. "But I'm alive. And, before you get bloody and go back to your . . .battlesleep . . .you should remember what that's like." Though callous, the girl spoke true. Thane knew it would be a very long time before he woke up, if ever, from the benign comfort of his cold life from this point forward. Darkly, he prayed he might never do so. In the most vivid, immediate sense, though, he was painfully alive. He leaned forward, as far as the ropes would allow, and captured Adelle's full mouth with his own. Human lips, pliant and vulnerable, pressed and parted. Drell lips, firm and eager, devoured and conquered. The girl melted to his chest, touching his face, drawing energized fingernails through his frills. His tongue sought entry, tasting the inner curve of her lip, the ridge of her teeth, sweeping the searing flesh inside her mouth. As her tongue, small and hot, moved against his, Thane's memory burst from its hiding place and sparked to life behind his eyes.


	4. 4

_Graceful fingers trace the contour of my thigh as I sleep. I awaken to her smile. Amber eyes. Dawn light softens her blue-green scales. She's a living watercolor, moving above me, drawing me out of sleep with her touch. I stretch and she touches my chest._

Words flooded across Adelle's neck as she held the assassin. She trailed kisses from his mouth to his collarbone, hands roaming in unison with his memory. Thane looked through her, seeing and not seeing. He leaned against her forehead.

"Keep going," she urged. They kissed deeply. Thane nodded and murmured against the girl's swollen lips.

 _I am caught. She straddles me, pinning my arms briefly. She pulls a kiss from my lips and rocks against me, sighing_.

Adelle gathered herself close, rocking against him, and smoothed her hands down his arms to his wrists. She bit his shoulder, drawing him sharply out of his memory, and kissed the wound as he moaned. The hard member jumped beneath her bottom, pressing ever upward. Pale, nimble fingers touched the ropes at his wrists.

"Be good," she whispered, her heart hammering, sending a beat through his heated chest. "Go on." As he pulled a stuttering breath, Adelle pressed a kiss against his throat . . .and worked the knots.

 _I tell her how beautiful she looks and she laughs. The sound of it fills me. She whispers how much she loves this. Our bodies move. Effortless and familiar. Her tongue finds mine._

Rope, hard and foreign, unyielding, loosened and slipped away. Arms fraught with tension went momentarily slack. He felt the blood return to his hands, invigorated by the sting. Thane bruised the girl's mouth, crushing it with his own as his arms came around her.

 _I hold her face, and trace her lips with my thumb. Irikah. She sucks the thumb in her mouth and rides me slowly at first. I'm drawn to the iridescent column of her neck, blue and green fading to pale yellow._

Frightened and unsure, Adelle wrapped her legs fully around the assassin as he stood, mouth working along her throat. In a quick, vertiginous moment, she felt herself turning, moving through the apartment in the dark. Thane gripped her hips and she clung to him, watching the walls, the furniture slip backward. He climbed to the center of a bed and pulled her arms from around his neck. Adelle yanked at her top and reached for her pants. Brilliant green fingers helped her, freeing her legs, and then he froze. She looked up at him, all shadow and need. Thane hovered, fighting the urge to throttle her, or plunge in, or both at once. Adelle touched his erection, stroking, bolder than she had any right to be. His shorts came off.

The assassin's hands dove into white-blonde hair, black at the roots, and he held her still. In another lifetime she may or may not have a chance at something real. This broken girl had forced him to share his wife with her. Begged him to taste the few cherished scraps from his ruined life . . .pieces of something pure she'd never known. She wasn't cruel, he realized. What was left of his heart ached for her. Adelle blinked up at him, uncharacteristically demure. The assassin felt himself drowning in her green eyes and her hot, fervent touches.

"Finish it," she breathed.

"No." he gathered her wrists and pinned her. His thumb traced the small metal device lying against her palm and he considered wrenching her omni-tool from her hand. To his utter surprise, she fought. Strong legs, long and quick, gathered to shove him away. Thane dodged easily and re-settled over her. Immobilized, she glared at him with all the fury of her youth.

"We had a deal."

"We will finish. You and I . . .and no one else." The assassin punctuated this by pressing her knees apart. His black eyes spilled their brief, warm tears onto her chest and she calmed, nodding. He kissed her mouth, tongue lashing against her lips. Adelle whimpered and succumbed, her rigid limbs relaxing. Thane dropped and hauled her atop him. Hands anchored at his chest, long legs bracing at his hips. The girl drew up, slowly, dragging the intense, wet heat of herself along his rigid cock, reveling in the promise of greater friction. She didn't smile, didn't make a sound. Only gripped him and plunged, letting her body drop quick and tight around him as he thrust. Her quiet unsettled the assassin, almost as much as the assuredness with which she moved. She should have been halting, questioning. But Adelle rode him with haunting skill. Thane pulled her down hard, green hands circling her waist, kneading her hips with bruising strength as he did it again and again. Still her sighs were inaudible, eyes wide and captivating. The dark pleasure of her youth met the assassin's body at every thrust.

Pale, long-fingered hands drifted from his chest to the bright crimson frills disappearing between her thighs. Adelle teased and pulled them, soothing one second and scraping the next. Thane's guttural cry broke the silence of the room, and instinct had him bucking against her wildly. Before she could ride it out, the assassin hooked an arm around her back and flipped their bodies over. Her breath caught, battered by the sudden shift and wrenched from her mouth by a demanding kiss. Thane bit her lower lip, hungry to hear her cry out. But, the girl lifted her legs to his shoulders with the quiet, steady ease of an acrobat and pulled him deeper inside her with strong hands on his hips. They stared at each other. Thane's limber body rolled against her in luxurious waves, teasing a deeper thrust that he continued to deny her. Gazing down at her, Thane saw the ghost of a smile as she panted, green eyes catching him. Adelle squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head into the sheets. Thane grasped her chin and forced her to look at him. Wanting more of that smile, needing to remember just why they were doing this. But his heart stopped.

Tears. Tears wetted the black lashes. And still not a sound.

To his shame, the girl's uncommon stoicism combined with her frailty only spurred his desire further. He plunged deep inside her, so desperately tight that her wet eyes fluttered. Thane shifted her legs to his waist and gathered her against his chest, flipping them once more. With his back against the headboard, he seated Adelle on his lap and held her still, searching her implacable face.

"Say something."

Instead, she lifted up and ground herself down, impaling, white teeth working her lower lip.

"ADELLE." Goddess help him he was moving with her, couldn't stop. She drew a breath and put her hands on his chest, caressing.

"Ignore it. It's just a r-reaction," she sighed lifting and falling. Sadness and confusion swept across Thane's face. She shook her head, white-blonde hair drifted. "It's drell. It h-happens every time." Her hands reached to touch herself, swirling, fingers brushing his lower ridges again. The assassin smoothed his hands over her breasts.

"Every time," he echoed. Her head bobbed forward as he touched her.

"Hallucinations. It's beautiful. I wish you could . . .see you." She smiled for him again, reassuring. Thane nodded. He hadn't realized that was a possibility. But the most urgent part of him was totally indifferent at this point. The girl spoke, gravelly but clear, "Want me to tell you about my first time? Or the next? I can tell you about . . ." Adelle bent to lick his jaw, voice deep and tremulous as he pushed inside her, "T-two drell at once, in my father's bed." Her voice was filthy and it was everywhere, filling his imagination. He groaned, moving faster beneath her, punishing, pulling at her shoulders and her hips. Thane felt swollen beyond measure. She arched against him, hand still working herself, head thrown back. And she let her voice be heard at last. As he licked her throat, the assassin tasted vibrating moans through her skin, heard a soft keening raining from her lips. His cock throbbed, brushing the deepest part of her, and she gasped, squealing. Adelle climaxed, looking down at him with unabashed triumph. Seconds later, his striped arms taut around her, Thane's orgasm rocketed through him as well.


	5. 5

The girl hugged him to her naked chest, kissing his closed eyelids. The pathetic, worthless child in her willed him to stay, to fall in love with her and take her away. Then he opened his eyes to look at her, this assassin who'd come to kill her father, and in their depthless black reflection she was reminded of the pain that had put them both here. As their breathing returned to normal, staring into his face, Adelle thought she might have glimpsed the woman she would become. Not a princess, not a partner, not even a just soldier. What she saw was a wanderer, touching everything and turning it to ash as she went. Wordlessly, he lifted her from his lap and set her aside, but he did not break her gaze.

"Where are my things?"

"Guess." She said, too petulantly even for her taste. The assassin sighed at her stubbornness. He rose, leaving the girl tangled in the bedsheets. Uncaring of his nakedness he began to search drawers, methodically moving from the bedroom to the hallway, then to the open living room beyond. He checked the vents and cabinets. She heard ripping and crashing. Adelle cursed under her breath and got up. As she pulled on her leather pants she heard the rummaging in the kitchen cease. Quickly, she muscled her way back into her tank top and padded, barefoot into the living room.

Pillows and couch cushions littered the floor. Even the faux fireplace had been ransacked, its electronic guts strewn on the carpet. The girl moved forward, glancing around. He had made quick work of his search. But the assassin himself was nowhere to be seen. Too late, she swiveled to look behind her and Thane appeared, hand on her throat, pushing her against something hard. The column, she remembered with a wry smirk. Her hands came up to the iron band of his arm, pulling helplessly. Her feet tangled in the discarded ropes.

"Don't kick, don't fight, or I'll crush your windpipe." The threat might have seemed empty, except for the careful pressure on her throat and the murderous glint in his black eyes. "Where. Are. My. Things?"

"It's so obvious, Krios. I'm disappointed." Adelle's smirk dissipated and she met his seriousness with enough casual reserve to infuriate him further. He squeezed and the thinning rush of air began to close.

"We're done with games, Adelle." The malice gave way to detached weariness. A feeling they shared whether he knew it or not. Green eyes closed, fighting panic.

"Everything is a game. Everyone plays. Life is too short." When he didn't respond, she opened her eyes, "If anybody should know that, it's you." Thane pulled her off the column and slammed her back into it, delighting in the way her head bounced, cloud of platinum hair flying. He moved closer. And as he did, a flash of amber light burst between them and he felt a jab against his ribs. Adelle raised an eyebrow. Looking down, he saw that her omni-tool sported a glowing, ten-inch blade that curved wickedly from her fist and threatened immediate disembowelment. The hand at her throat loosened but did not budge. When he pulled his eyes back to her face Thane felt his anger dissolve somewhat.

"I promised you." She said, beating back the hurt that crept into her bruised voice, "I told you I'd give you . . .everything you wanted." The assassin and the admiral's daughter regarded each other. A careful respect pushed its way between them in the tense moment.

Thane recognized, with some self-reproach, that the girl had likely never made a promise, a real one, in the whole of her young life. His hand fell away and he stepped back. Adelle retracted the omni-blade and reached out with her right hand. She gripped the back of the dining chair, the one to which she'd bound the assassin only an hour or so before, and tipped it over. Thane looked down and uttered a curse that the girl had never heard in her life. Adelle put a hand to her mouth, stifling a satisfied giggle.

Hidden in the recess under the seat of the chair, packaged and taped in a tidy bundle, were Thane's clothes, shoes, omni-tool and pistol.

Without a word, he bent and ripped the package away from its hiding place. She watched him stride back to the bedroom, admiring the stark ripple of green and black scales pulling tight across hard planes of muscle. Even swallowed half in shadow he was beautiful. Pushing away from the column on unsteady feet, she went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of something that smelled like gun oil and rocket fuel.

Adelle carried her glass back to the living room and stood in the ruins, wincing at the scald of alcohol in her throat. Other than the mess, the apartment, the world, was as quiet and uninteresting as when she had first entered. But the girl felt shifted. As if everything had jumped out of place and left her swimming in mid-air. Out of the dark, Thane emerged buckling his coat. Adelle downed the remains of her drink and tossed the empty glass on the carpet.

The assassin nodded at her left arm. "Unless I am mistaken, that is not standard-issue."

Adelle smiled and nodded, "It's a prototype. Won't be out for years."

Thane's eyes narrowed, watching the girl's neck. He reached for her and she flinched at first, her green gaze wide and uncertain. With surprising tenderness, firm hands traced the shadowy bruises, blooming in Technicolor on her white throat.

"I am sorry. For whatever that's worth."

She lifted her chin, pulling away slightly. "Get moving. You've got a few more hours but he'll want to be gone before the staff arrive." The girl tilted her head to look at his suit. "This is nice. I liked you better the other way, but this is good, too." The hoarseness of her voice tormented him. He looked down at her bare feet.

"My wife. The kind of person she was. I am certain she would disapprove of revenge. For my son's sake, at the very least." Her hands took his. For a second they were blue-green, delicately scaled. "But, everything in me says I must do this."

Adelle's quiet breathing, her steady emerald gaze, soothed him.

"Kill them all. Every last one." She said, with a seriousness she had not possessed only hours ago. "If there's such a thing as forgiveness, worry about it when you're done. It's got nothing to do with now."

In her eyes Thane saw that she meant every word. Her father, and everyone who came after, would die screaming in agony. With disgraceful certainty, he knew that he could easily give Adelle those gruesome memories, would share them with pride if he met her again one day. But, he would likely never speak of Irikah again.

She dropped his hands, suddenly, remembering one important thing. Leaping like a graceful, woodland creature over the couch, she disappeared for a second and popped back up. The girl came around and approached the assassin. She pressed something cold and hard in his hand.

"Don't leave your toys lying around. Evidence." Her broad, pale shoulders shrugged. Thane hefted the injection device, looked at its empty cylinder, and tucked it into his coat pocket.

"It's not appropriate to thank you, Adelle. But, strangely, that seems to be all I can think of."

She nodded.

"I know the feeling."

The assassin mounted the stairs and headed for the front door. Her voice compelled him to turn for a last look.

"Call me Shepard," she said, "From now on. There's only one."

They nodded at each other and he left her alone in the dark, ruined apartment.


End file.
